Manufacturer's technical support

Having been through the process of choosing a new laptop, I have found one aspect of the necessary research particularly difficult. Finding expert reviews of products is straightforeward, eg this site. User reviews of products, whilst not AS objective, are useful, as long as one reads a reasonable sample. Where it is less easy, from the objectivity point of view, is the quality of support, from the manufacturer. It is very difficult to find "expert" views (even Which? are pretty useless at this) on manufacturer's support. Users tend to write manufacturer reviews, only when they've had a bad experience, so they cannot be relied on as representative, or objective. Some sort of review, on this site, of manufacturer's support, would be useful, or even a "straw poll" of members' experiences, bad and GOOD.

"Some sort of review, on this site, of manufacturer's support, would be useful, or even a "straw poll" of members' experiences, bad and GOOD."

The whole point of our Consumerwatch forum is that people - consumers - can tell us all about their good and bad experiences with suppliers. We can't 'review' manufacturers' customer support services because we're not in a position to do so. We don't buy goods, so we can't put customer support to the test.

The best way to form an opinion is to read the accounts posted here by people who have had real-life experiences, but remember - our experience has shown that people are far more likely to tell everyone when they have a bad experience than when they've been treated well.